(the modern Fersalo), a city of Thessaly, was situated in the district of Thessalotis, on the left bank of the Enipeus. Its position was peculiarly favourable. A gradually ascending hill, 600 or 700 feet high, formed its site; a steep precipice guarded it on three sides; numerous springs flowing out of the declivity supplied it with water; and one of the most fertile valleys in Greece lay around its base. Accordingly, from the earliest days of Grecian history, up to the time of the Romans, it was renowned as a seat of military strength. Yet Pharsalus attained its greatest notoriety when, in 48 B.C., the two stars of Caesar and Pompey came into collision in its neighbourhood, and the fate of the world was decided in the plain below its northern wall.